


With An X

by FestiveFerret



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Brought to You By the Letter X, Cap-Iron Man Alphabet Challenge, Established Relationship, Falling In Love, Feelings, Fluff, Love Notes, M/M, Relationship Worry, Sappiness, now with art!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-24 06:10:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13805088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FestiveFerret/pseuds/FestiveFerret
Summary: Steve loves it when Tony leaves little notes for him to find. There's just one thing about it that bothers him...





	With An X

_Steve -_  
_Had to run to SI early. Let’s do dinner._  
_And dessert. ;)  
x_

Steve sat up in bed and smoothed the note between his fingers. Waking up alone when he’d fallen asleep with Tony in his arms was a disappointment, but the note almost made up for it. It was all so new - the idea of waking up with someone else in his bed - that he hadn’t been sure what to expect the first time Tony had asked if he could stay over. But it was wonderful, falling asleep to acres of warm, smooth skin and waking up to Tony’s back pressed against his chest.

Honestly, he'd been expecting Tony to be missing from bed when he woke up that first time, considering how much sleep he usually got, but after a couple months of spending a few nights a week together in either Steve’s bed or Tony’s, this was the first time he’d woken up alone.

And Tony had written him a note.

Steve ran his thumb over it again, tracing the edges of Tony’s scratchy handwriting. He frowned a little. He did wish that Tony had signed it, that would have been nice. To see his name. He understood, of course, why he might not. Tony owned a huge multinational corporation, he probably spent all day signing things. But Steve was an artist at heart, and signing your name meant something, a bit of ownership. Steve wouldn’t mind being owned by Tony, he thought idly while he made his breakfast, missing Tony’s babble over shared coffee. Then he blushed; it was a bit early to be thinking things like that.

The notes continued. Every time Tony was early, late, or they just happened to be ships passing in the night, Tony would scrawl out a little message and tuck it on Steve’s pillow, or leave it next to the coffeemaker.

 _Steve-_  
_I put my leftover cheesecake in the fridge for you._  
_Next time I go to Angelino’s I want you with me instead of a bunch of stuffy investors._  
_x_

 _Steve-_  
_Nat says you’re at the gym._  
_Call me when you get home.  
x_

 _Steve-_  
_Ha! You were wrong about how long lobsters live. I looked it up._  
_P.S. I’m watching you work out right now and your ass is phenomenal in those pants.  
x_

Once, Steve stepped out of the shower to find-

 _Hot damn. Meet me in the bedroom before you get dressed._  
_x_

\- written in the steam on his mirror.

Every note made his heart soar a little more. They were all pieces of Tony that helped bridge the gap between the moments they spent together. They were busy people whose time was rarely their own, and that put a strain on their budding relationship, but the notes helped. So, when Steve spotted Tony’s half-finished crossword open on the coffee table as he got dressed to go in to SHIELD one morning, he decided to write a note back.

 _Tony,_  
_The answer to 12-across is “reliever” and we need to go to a ballgame asap if you couldn’t get that on your own. See you tonight._  
_-Steve_

And they went on.

 _Tony,_  
_I hope your shoulder feels better. I heard a hot bath and a massage is good for muscle strain, if you need help with that later ;)  
-Steve_

 _Tony,_  
_Bruce and Nat want to go out to dinner with us tonight. Let JARVIS know when you wake up if you’d like to join?  
-Steve_

 _Tony,  
_ _You were staring really seriously at your screen so I didn’t want to interrupt you. Hope you enjoy this sandwich. If you finish in time, we could watch one of the movies on our list and you could stay over tonight. Let JARVIS know if you can’t, so I don’t wait up._

Steve hesitated before writing his name on the post-it, watching the back of Tony’s head as it tipped to the side, eyes fixed with 100% focus on his screen. It felt like there was something missing from the note, but he couldn’t think what. He stared at it for a moment before scrawling out _“-Steve”_ and sticking the post-it to the edge of the plate. He tucked it up on the side of the desk where Tony would find it as soon as he came out of his engineering trance. Steve blew a kiss to the back of Tony’s head then blushed at his own silliness and hustled out.

Steve headed up to the common living room and curled up on the big, squishy couch with his book. He was about to crack it open when he saw another book sitting on the table. It was one he'd wanted to read but Tony had lent to Bruce before Steve could ask to borrow it. Seizing the opportunity to flip through it and see if it really was something worth reading, Steve picked it up and opened it. It fell open to a page about a third of the way through, and the slip of paper Bruce was using as a bookmark fell out and fluttered to the floor.

 _Bruciebear,_  
_Think you’ll like this one, but let me know when you get to the bit with the “scientist” about halfway through, it’s hilarious. Wish I could have gotten one of my PhDs for vaguely chemistry-sounding nonsense.  
-Tony_

Steve stared at the note, an unexpected flush of anger washing over him. So, Tony signed notes to Bruce. He knew Tony had written this one recently, less than a week ago, so it wasn’t like the “x” was a new thing. It was that a note to Bruce got a full signature, but Steve wasn’t worth Tony’s name.

It was silly, he _knew_ that. But he always took the time to sign the notes he left for Tony with his name, even if he knew that it would be obvious they were from him, so why wouldn’t Tony do the same? He tucked Bruce’s note back in the book and tossed it aside, then went up to his room, his interest in reading while waiting for Tony to finish waning. There was a little cardboard box on the back shelf of his closet, and he tugged it out and opened it. A sea of white interspersed with neon pink and blue greeted him: all the notes Tony had ever written him. Not that anyone else would know that, because each one was signed with a hasty “x”.

“You’re being stupid,” he said out loud to himself, then he put the box back in the closet and turned on the TV. He flipped around until he found a ballgame and tried to zone out to it, but mixed up, half-chewed thoughts about their relationship kept rolling through his mind.

Halfway through the sixth inning, JARVIS piped up. “Mr. Stark would like to know if you’re still interested in ‘Netflix and chill’ this evening, Captain Rogers.”

Steve snorted, even as he was reminded of his frustration. For the first time since they’d started this thing between them, Steve hesitated. He was being petty, he knew that, but at the same time, there was something real here that concerned him, something they should probably talk about, if he could find the courage. Because what if this was a sign that Tony wasn’t as invested in this as he was? What if this was one of many small ways that Tony was keeping things casual? Steve was falling hard, he could feel it, and it was probably too soon and too much - especially since this was the first real relationship he’d ever had - but he couldn't help it. Tony was everything he could ever imagine himself wanting, and every time he looked towards the future, Tony was there.

For Tony though... Tony had been in plenty of relationships, some of which had lasted a long time. Maybe he thought he was dropping obvious hints that for him this was just a bit of relaxed fun and he didn’t want a long-term commitment to Steve. But Steve, having no idea how to date at all, let alone in the 21st century, was missing them all. All but this one.

That wasn’t Tony’s fault, though, it was Steve’s. So he shouldn’t bother Tony with it. He needed to figure out what he wanted on his own, and then tell Tony the truth, and if Tony wasn’t ready for something serious… well… Steve’s heart clenched. He tipped his chin towards the ceiling.  “Sure,” he told JARVIS. “Tell him I’m in my apartment. He can come up anytime.”

“He says to expect him in twenty minutes, Captain.”

Steve spent the twenty minutes failing to focus on the baseball game and fretting about his relationship with Tony. It had all been so easy and fun and now it was twisted up with confusion and unhappiness.

“Honey, I’m home!” Tony trilled as he pushed through the door. His arms were full of circuit boards. “Hope you don’t mind, I have some soldering to do. Thought I could Netflix and Solder and Chill, though now that I’m thinking about it, two of those three don’t really go together too well, do they? I could learn to solder with my feet, so I could use my hands for other things. Or I could do the other things with my feet." He waggled his eyebrows exaggeratedly. "You into feet, Steve?” He chuckled then smiled dopily at Steve.

Steve stared at him. When he didn’t answer, Tony dumped the pile on the coffee table and sat down next to him.

He leaned in for a kiss, but Steve must have let some of his tension bleed through into it, because Tony was frowning when he pulled back. “You okay?”

Steve shrugged. “Sure.” He turned back to the TV and crossed his arms over his chest. “I just finally get you for the night and you’ve brought all your work upstairs,” he muttered under his breath. The frustration he'd managed to tamp down earlier was back with a vengeance.

Tony tensed beside him. “If it bothers you, I don’t have to work on it. Just thought I could multitask.”

“No, no it’s fine. In fact, we could just get the sex over with now, and you could go back down to your workshop where you want to be.” The unfair words spilled out before he could stop them.

“Uh, Steve? I think I’m missing something. Did I forget something important? I do that, sweetheart, I’m sorry. I can’t seem to help it. JARVIS helps, though, if you tell him.” Tony’s hand landed on Steve’s arm gently. “What did I miss?”

Steve opened his mouth, petty, snappish words welling up inside him. They tumbled out. “You didn’t miss anything, Tony. Including me. You don’t seem to miss me at all, when you’re not here, since you barely want to spend time with me.” Steve stood and marched into the kitchen to give his body something to do. He grabbed a soda and fiddled with the pop tab on it without opening.

Tony appeared beside him. “Of course I want to spend time with you. Of course, I miss you…Steve…” he was almost pleading now, but Steve was on a roll.

“If this isn’t a big deal to you, Tony, that’s fine. It’s really fine. But I need you to tell me so I don’t go getting all attached, or whatever, because I don’t know if you know that this is already the longest relationship I’ve ever been in, and now I don’t even know if it’s really a relationship or if it doesn’t mean anything to you. You don’t even  - you don’t even want to sign your name on the notes to me, and _I don't know what that means.”_ Steve sucked in a breath and snapped his mouth shut while Tony blinked at him. He tugged the pink post-it he’d been staring at without seeing off the fridge and fiddled with it.

“I don’t sign my… what?”

Steve squirmed. He hadn’t meant for that to spill out. “You don’t… you don’t sign your name when you - you always put just an ‘x’ like you don’t even want to…” Tony’s eyes were going huge. “...Don’t want to… put… your name… on us.”

“Steve.” Tony took the post-it out of Steve’s hand and smoothed it out, looking at it. “It’s… I - Steve it’s a little, uh, kiss.” Tony’s cheeks pinked. “I was signing it with a kiss… for you. Um, because I like kissing you. Was that not a thing in the 40s?”

Steve’s hand slapped over his mouth, and it was a wonder his fingers didn’t immediately ignite where they touched his burning cheeks. “Oh my god,” he mumbled under his palm.

Tony seemed to be fighting a smile. “Did you think I was signing it with an x because I didn’t want people to know they were from me? That we were together?”

“Oh god, I’m so-”

Tony reached out and peeled Steve’s hand away from his mouth. “What was that?”

Steve swallowed heavily and forced himself to meet Tony’s eyes, shoving both hands in his back pockets to resist the urge to slap them over his mouth again. “It _was_ a thing in the 40s. I just… didn’t get it. Oh, god. This is so embarrassing. I’m used to seeing ‘xo’ or something, I guess, not just one x... I - shit.”

“You,” Tony said, hooking his fingers in Steve’s belt loops to tug him closer, “are adorable. I can’t believe you thought it was a slight. I’m sorry. I just assumed you would know what that meant.”

“I should have. Wow. I am such an idiot.”

“I love you.”

Steve’s eyes sprung up from where they had fallen to the floor again. His mouth fell open. “You -?”

“I love you. That’s what I wanted to say at the end of the notes. That I love you. But it was too soon. But I’m saying it now. Possibly also too soon. So there's that. But I do. Love you. Also, do I actually not spend enough time with you? Because if so all you have to do is tell me. I kind of thought we had this groove where we were doing our own thing, but I will never pass up more time with you, so just say the word, Steve. I’m all yours.”

Steve's heart did a rapid 180, and he struggled to find his breath against the sudden g-force. “I love you too.”

Tony beamed. “Oh, good.”

Steve pulled his hands out of his pockets and twined them together behind Tony’s back, tugging until they were tightly pressed together. “I overreacted. God, I'm sorry. We do have a groove, it’s okay. I let myself get all twisted up about the notes... Though, maybe a little more time together wouldn’t hurt.” He shrugged.

Tony kissed the tip of his nose. “You got it.”

“And I love the notes, please don’t stop.”

“I won’t.”

Netflix and soldering were both abandoned in favour of a stumble to the bedroom and an efficient shedding of clothes. They spent the evening wrapped around each other, whispering love and promises and desires in each other’s ears and pressing kisses everywhere they could reach. Steve fell asleep with Tony pillowed on his chest, their fingers wound together over Steve’s heart.

When he woke up, it was late, the sun already streaming through the windows, and Tony was gone. There was, however, a note on the pillow.

 _My dearest Steve,_  
_When you get that lazy - and perfect - ass out of bed, come find me in the workshop. Bring coffee._  
_Love you,_  
_Your Tony  
_ xoxoxoxox

**Author's Note:**

> I took the prompt x = a kiss and ran with it!
> 
> lanidzac did the most amazing art for this story. [See it here!](https://78.media.tumblr.com/7138f742cf74ad5b7b84d43de0340271/tumblr_p5tkcbp91Y1stzh2ho1_1280.png)


End file.
